Abstract

Between July 1, 1979, and March 15, 1981, there were 22 unsolved homicides and two unsolved disappearances of Atlanta children. Using epidemiologic methods, we attempted to identify factors that had put children at an increased risk of homicide. That all victims in this cluster were black, killed away from home, and that asphyxiation was overrepresented suggests that the cluster was discrete.… Read more

Abstract

Violence is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. The Center for Health Promotion and Education, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has begun to apply epidemiologic techniques to study the problems of child abuse, child homicide, homicide, and suicide.… Read more

Abstract

Homicide is a major cause of pediatric mortality. National law enforcement data were analyzed to characterize and differentiate neonaticide, infanticide, filicide, and overall child homicide. Results include the following: Neonaticides often involved parents or unidentified perpetrators and occurred proportionately more in rural areas than did other types of child homicide.… Read more

Abstract

Violence toward children is an acknowledged pediatric problem, but physicians may not be aware that it is a leading cause of pediatric mortality. Therefore, I used homicide data for persons younger than 18 years of age to characterize child homicide.… Read more

Abstract

Homicide is one of the five leading causes of death for all persons 1-44 years of age. Over half of the homicides occurring in 1979 did not involve the perpetration of another crime. The authors have defined these as primary homicides and suggest that these deaths require the formulation of public health and social services prevention strategies.… Read more

Abstract

In 1979, over 20,000 people in the United States were victims of homicide, but public health agencies have not yet defined their role in its prevention. Role definition might begin with differentiating various forms of homicide, so the authors used data on all homicides reported by law enforcement agencies for 1976-1979 to determine whether homicides that did not occur during the perpetration of another crime (primary homicides) differ from those that occurred during the perpetration of another crime (secondary homicides).… Read more

Abstract

Homicide rates for infants dropped suddenly between 1967 and 1969. The abrupt nature of this decline suggested the change was artifactual. Investigation suggests that two classification revisions instituted at this time were causes of this decline: changes in related codes set forth in the Eighth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases, Adapted, and revision of the standard certificate of death in 1968.… Read more

Abstract

From July 1975 through December 1979, the Georgia Department of Protective Services Central Registry recorded population-based data on confirmed, non-confirmable, and ruled-out child abuse reports. We propose that reporting biases are reflected in the differential characteristics of confirmed and ruled-out reports of child abuse.… Read more

Abstract

Sexual and physical child abuse are assumed to differ; however, these differences have not been well characterized epidemiologically. Furthermore, despite assumed differences, these types of abuse are often analyzed as one entity. This can have significant effects on assessment of risk and recommendations for intervention.… Read more